TUNING-LA Final Report

• Reflexions and Perspectives in Higher Education in Latin America

TUNING-LA Final Report

Thematic areas• Business Administration• Architecture• Law• Education• Nursing• Physics• Geology• History• Civil Engineering• Mathematics• Medicine• Chemistry

TUNING-PERU University System (1)

• There are 83 univer-sities of which 35 are state and 48 are private (2004).

• Four of the private ones are for profit.

• There are about 282.000 students in state universities and 237.000 in private ones

• The total number of professors is 49.000 of which 70% are full time

TUNING-PERU University System (2)

• Rectors of all universities constitute a National Assembly to oversee the compliance of the University Law

• The Law does not really set standards for the quality of teaching or research

• The Tuning National Centre is under the National Assembly of Rectors, which is also trying to promote a self evaluation program on the part of the universities

TUNING-PERU University System (3)

• Each university issues valid diplomas on behalf of the State using its own Regulations, which makes for really no standards at all.

• Right now a certain university is questioning the validity of an MIT doctoral degree while recognizing local doctoral degrees obtained without any original research.

TUNING-PERU University System, Physics (1)

• UN Mayor de San Marcos Lic en Física• UN San Antonio Abad Lic en Física• UN de Trujillo Lic en Física• UN San Agustín Lic en Física• UN de Ingeniería Ing Físico y Lic en Física• UN de Piura Lic en Física• UN Pedro Ruiz Gallo Lic en Física• UN Federico Villarreal Lic en Física• UN del Callao Lic en Física• UN Jorge Basadre Grobmann Lic en Fís Aplicada• UN San Luis Gonzaga Lic en Física• Pontificia Univ Católica del Perú Lic en Física• Univ Peruana Cayetano Heredia Lic en Física

TUNING-PERU University System, Physics (2)

• In LA three types of programs in Physics can be perceived:

• Traditional Physics (research and development, university education, and industrial production and services)

• Applied Physics (medical physics, geophysics, engineering physics and biophysics)

• Educational Physics (high school and technical physics)

• Peru has programs of the first and second type only• Educational Physics programs are sometimes

offered by others than Departments or Schools of Physics

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (1)

• 1 To set up, analyze and solve physical problems, theoretical and experimental, by using numerical, analytical or experimental methods +ALL

• 2 To use or write computational programs for processing information, numerical calculations, simulation of physical processes and control of experiments

• 3 To identify essential elements in a complex situation to make the necessary approximations and to construct simplified models describing such situation, in order to understand its behaviour under different conditions ++ACA

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (2)

• 4 To verify model correspondence to reality and to identify limits to its validity

• 5 To apply Physics theoretical knowledge to execution and interpretation of experiments +ALL

• 6 To attain a deep understanding of fundamental concepts and principles of classic and modern Physics +ACA, EMP and STU

• 7 To describe and explain natural phenomena and technological processes in terms of concepts, theories and physical principles

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (3)

• 8 To construct and develop valid reasoning, identifying hypothesis and conclusions

• 9 To extrapolate general principles, laws or more general theories from particular solutions -ALL

• 10 To estimate orders of magnitude of measurable quantities for interpreting diverse phenomena --STU, EMP

• 11 To develop a clear perception of the fact that apparently diverse situations show similarities allowing for the use of known solutions to new problems ++EMP, --STU

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (4)

• 12 To show experimental skills and adequate methods in laboratory work --GRA

• 13 To participate in professional activities related to high technology in the laboratory or in industry –AC, EMP GRA

• 14 To participate in counselling and elaborating proposals in science and technology with emphasis on topics of social or economic impact at the national level

-ALL

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (5)

• 15 To act with responsibility and professional ethics showing social conscience for justice and solidarity as well as respect for the environment ++GRA, EMP

• 16 To demonstrate work habits necessary for the practice of the profession such as team work, scientific rigor, self learning and persistence +ALL

• 17 To seek, interpret and use scientific literature +ACA, STU, GRA

• 18 To communicate scientific concepts and results to peers, students and the general public through oral and written language ++GRA

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (6)

• 19 To participate in physical or interdisciplinary research projects ++STU

• 20 To show readiness to face new problems in other fields, using owns specific abilities --STU, GRA, ACA

• 21 To know the conceptual development of Physics in historical and epistemological terms -ALL

• 22 To know relevant aspects of the learning-teaching process in Physics, so as to collaborate in the education of scientists -ALL

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (7)

Brief Analysis• Competences in Physics were consulted

with Academics (ACA), Employers (EMP), Students (STU) and Graduates (GRA). 801 answers were obtained in 12 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela

• High correlation coefficients between answers from ACA and GRA and low correlation between EMP and STU were found

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (8)

• Competences 01, 05 and 16 were chosen among the six most important by +ALL (ACA, EMP, STU and GRA)

• Competence 06 is one of the most important ones for +ACA, EMP, STU. Same for Competence 17 with respect to +ACA, STU, GRA

• Competence 15 is the most important for ++GRA, EMP. Same for Competences 03 (++ACA), 19 (++STU), 11 (++EMP) and 18 (GRA)

• Competences 09, 14, 21 and 22 were chosen among the six less important by -ALL

TUNING-LA Competences in Physics (9)

• Competence 13 was chosen the less important by --ACA, EMP y GRA. Same for 10 (--STU, EMP)

• Competence 11 was chosen the less important by --STU. Same for 12 (--GRA), 20 (--STU, GRA, ACA)

TUNING-PERUWhat to do with

Competences (1)• Of course we can deduce syllabi and curricula from

them. This has been done already, we suppose, by many planners, albeit imperfectly. Top to bottom, this process was called.

• Our Physics school in Peru was set up by engineers. They knew some Mathematics and a lot of Statics. So they started at the bottom and remained there for 3 years. For instance, they had 3 courses on Geometry: Analytic, Projective and Descriptive. Some of the 13 Physics schools at present still do something like that.

• Jobs are scarce in Peru for university graduates in general. If somebody proposes to create a new school to alleviate the situation, the curriculum may contain anything. Competences will be much beneficial in this context.

TUNING-PERUWhat to do with

Competences (2)• We can use Competences at a different

level. If two schools adopt the same set, interchange of students among them will be easy (grades from the other school will be accepted). Same set of competences do not means same style, same experiments or same equipment. Personal needs or preferences could be better served if students can choose some courses in one place and others in another.

• But first, we have to worry about getting to give our graduates the approved competences.

For 01 we thought of a very simple experiment connecting everyday observation with registering and analysing motion in two dimensions.

TUNING-PERUThe motion of a sowbug (1)• The progress of a sowbug crawling in

between a glass plate and a kitchen table top could be marked by a pen hitting the image of the sowbug on the glass at times t, t+Δt, t+2Δt, …., etc. signaled by the sound of drops falling from a faucett on a sink. Suppose Δt=1s.

• Pen markings define an approximate trajectory in the glass plate and can be used to draw the velocity and acceleration arrows of the moving sowbug.

• This may illustrate what Competence 1 is about

• Also motions in two dimensions look more natural than in just one dimension.

TUNING-PERUThe motion of a sowbug (2)

TUNING-PERUThe motion of a sowbug (3)

TUNING-PERUThe motion of a sowbug (3)

• Of course, this could be done in the high schools of Peru, replacing the kitchen faucett by a discarded blood serum bottle hospital kit (minus the needle!), but our high school teachers are not good enough yet.

• It may be argued that electronic sensors are more precise and have a much wider field of applications. True. But we don’t have sensors for two dimensions, or rather low price positioning systems.

• The experiment can be continued by registering coordinates and using the data in a computer.

Thanks, Europe (1)• We started educating physicists in Peru in 1964. Three or four of us returned by that year from the

US and Europe. The “or” reflects that one of the four was a German who seems to have always lived in Peru, only that Sommerfeld´s school never existed here. This was our first stroke of luck. We had, presto, a modern physics lab going.

Our second was that the French started worrying about their incoming Mururoa explosions and its effects in the Pacific coast. But they got to see the little research we were doing and started sending us their “military cooperants”, some of them very thoroughly trained physicists.

Thanks, Europe (2)

With them we atarted publishing very soon in the international journals.

• Next came the invitation to send people to Trieste where Abdus Salam was thinking and acting for our benefit and after that came the possibility of European scientists visiting us to lecture on topics related to our overall development (Multiciencias). This was greatly helped by a contribution through Cicyt, the Spanish link with the European Commission!

• Also by this time we got very good help from the Uppsala Progrma, Sweden.

Thanks, Europe (3)

• Only now our Government is finally giving us a hand through the acceptance of a loan from the Inter American Bank. This has been the source in Latin America for major investment in Science and Technology from Brazil 40 years ago to Ecuador 5 years back.

• Being in Spain today, I would like to recall some of Salam’s ideals. He, a Muslim, used to walk paths of the old Arab scientists bringing the Greek love for knowledge to Europe through Spain.

Thanks, Europe (4)• Salam in bringing young scientists to

Europe through the ICTP in Trieste, remarked several times that he believed in the unity of men. A great English poet, John Donne , had said that when a man dies, every other man dies a little. “For whom the bell tolls” asks one man. “They toll for thee”, answers another.

• Cesar Vallejo, a Peruvian poet, living in Spain at the time of the Civil War, told of a man about to die. His companion said No, you must not leave us! And called other men to intone a chorus chanting the same. So many came that soon all of humanity was there with a voice so strong and determined that the death of that man reverted

• You, Europeans, know of the force of unity!